Examination or treatment facilities of this kind are mostly embodied as imaging systems, for example as x-ray facilities comprising a radiation source and a radiation receiver, which are arranged opposite one another on the C-arm. They are used in various different fields of application, for example in the field of angiography.
As part of the imaging, in systems of this kind the C-arm moves around an isocenter; it is moved along a circular path. To this end, it is guided in a bracket which has a fixed position relative to the arm, but in turn is often rotatable, in order to be able to adapt the spatial alignment of the arm etc. To move the arm, there is provision for a corresponding drive, usually comprising an exposed drive belt which runs on the outside of the C-arm and which is guided via a corresponding, bracket-side drive pinion. To guide the arm on the bracket, there is frequently provision for an exposed guidance system comprising bracket-side rollers and arm-side running wires, on which the rollers roll. Power is supplied to the operating components arranged on the C-arm by cables or supply lines accommodated in external guides along the C-arm.
To avoid any infections which could be picked up in the course of such an examination, a good cleanability of the equipment used is advantageous. This is not always the case, however, in known examination or treatment facilities, in particular in the region of the guide and drive of the C-arm, as the running wires and rollers for example are partially difficult to access and can only be cleaned with considerable effort—the same applies in relation to the belt drive.
A medical facility with a support apparatus is known in DE 197 46 079 A1, which can be adjusted relative to a retaining apparatus and is made of plastic, in the form of a C-arm. The C-arm is guided on rollers on the retaining apparatus. It has a hollow, closed base part, to which two add-on parts facing one another and curved in a C-shape are fastened. By way of these parts, recesses are delimited, in which the rollers run during the adjustment of the C-arm relative to the retaining apparatus on the C-arm.
Also known in U.S. Pat. No. 7,108,422 B2 is a medical facility with a C-arm guided such that it can move along a bracket. The C-arm is surrounded by a sterile enclosure, which can be closed around the C-arm via a suitable sealing material.
Finally, a C-arm device is known from DE 10 2004 011 460 A1 with a C-arm which can move along a bracket, wherein here too the C-arm has an approximately semicircular hollow profile, which on the side facing toward the bracket has a corresponding recess or socket, into which the corresponding rollers of the movement apparatus engage.